The School of Communication has begun recruitment for its SOC Student Ambassador Program.
These students will "serve as the representative voice for all SOC students," said Jonnel Clothier, the director of graduate and undergraduate advising in SOC and overseer of the program.
The program will be launched in fall 2007 and will be made up of volunteer SOC students.
SOC ambassadors will be asked to perform various tasks throughout the school year, including serving on student panels during prospective school days to highlight the strengths of SOC, giving tours of SOC to prospective students and their families and representing the SOC student body at university meetings and functions.
The ambassadors will meet with Clothier regarding academic issues, extracurricular activities and other issues that impact SOC students. They will also assist with on-campus and possibly off-campus recruiting events.
The SOC undergraduate council, which is elected every spring and consists of a president, vice president, secretary and comptroller, will work with the SOC Student Ambassadors on a number of issues. The undergraduate council and Clothier met before spring break and agreed that the council's working with the ambassadors would be beneficial to the individual groups and to SOC as a whole, according to Clothier.
Clothier has also asked Farida Khatchadourian, an undergraduate adviser in SOC, to be involved and take an important role in running the program because of her role as an academic adviser for SOC.
Irene Magafan, a graduate student in SOC, said she believes this program will be beneficial to the SOC and the students who volunteer as ambassadors.
"I think it's a good way to bring in diverse dialogue throughout students and the AU community in general," Magafan said. "It's also a good way to create awareness of issues that are going on with current AU programs and programs in development. Also, it will benefit students in that they'll be able to build relationships with outside sources."
Any freshman, sophomore or junior in SOC may apply to be an ambassador. Applications are available in SOC's Undergraduate Student Advising Office and are due April 16.
Ambassadors will be selected based on their application and an interview with the director of advising and SOC academic advisers. The interviews will tentatively take place at the end of April and a decision on who will serve as ambassadors next year will tentatively be made shortly after, according to Clothier.
"We want leaders that can serve as an inspiration to current and prospective students," Clothier said. "We also want thoughtful people that take their academics seriously as new initiatives are discussed."
An orientation for the ambassadors will tentatively take place in the first week of next semester and the ambassadors will begin acting out their role in the semester's second week, Clothier said.
Lauren Demko, a graduate student in SOC, said she believes the SOC student ambassador program will better prepare student volunteers for communications careers.
"As students of the School of Communication, students need to know how to communicate, which this program seems to give them the skills to do," Demko said. "It's nice to know that even more students are going to be representatives of the school"
